Lizard Ridge Leftovers Vest

The minute I saw the Lizard Ridge blanket on Knitty – long before I was part of the team – I knew I had to knit it.Â I’m a big fan of Kureyon, and the idea that I could buy and play with 24 different colors – well, how could I say no?

I worked on it over the winter and spring of 2007, and finished it up June 19th, 2007.Â It’s a fabulous piece, and I adore my blanket. It sits proudly on the couch – often being rested upon by an animal.

Warm, comfy and gorgeous.

In the 3 years since I’ve finished it, I’ve held onto the bag of leftovers – 48 golf-ball sized balls of Kureyon.

From the depths of my stash

I knew I was going to do something with them, but I didn’t know what.Â I tried some crochet, but it didn’t really work.Â I knew I had about 400g (about 400m), so whatever I made wasn’t going to be big.

In the last few months, I’ve been playing with top-down vest construction.Â I was reworking a pattern I had originally written for a worsted weight yarn, to convert it to aran weight.Â And I needed some aran weight yarn to use.Â And the lightbulb went on: Kureyon is an aran weight.

And so began the insanity vest project.Â When each of the tiny balls of yarn ran out, I’d try to choose something that was contrasting, but otherwise I tried not to overthink the color changes.

Early on, I got a bit worried – I had chosen very different colors for the upper fronts, and it wasn’t looking good.

Too much?

And about halfway through, I had a huge crisis of faith because the stripes in the upper sections were much wider than in the body – this had to happen, since there are significantly more stitches in the body than in the upper portions.

Uneven stripes

Last week, I finished it.Â I edged it in plain black, just as I had done for my blanket.Â And I love it! I goes with everything and nothing and it’s my current favorite thing in my wardrobe.

So after your crisis of faith, you obviously had a leap of faith because you finished it and ended up with a remarkably wonderful, wearable vest in the process! I love the look and now know what to consider when I’ve finished my Lizard Ridge(someday). Congratulations!
Peggy

what a great way to use that left over yarn! i plan on doing that with my left over sock yarns for my daughter a crazy pair of socks. she wants them, i just have to MAKE myself do them. after looking at your vest i feel inspired now. thanks

Hi! Looks terrific. I am tempted even though I don’t have Lizard Ridge leftovers (yet…). I could picture knitting it in the same pattern stitch, although I suppose that might be a bit much on someone my size. Hmmm…